1 COLUMBIA 101: Columbia College Student Agenda – Summer 2014 Introduction and Overview of Session • Advising at Columbia • Transition from high school to college • Basic requirements for a Columbia College degree • Columbia College Core Curriculum • Academic integrity • Planning your fall schedule and registering for classes • Academic advising resources • Common Columbia terms I. Advising at Columbia The Center for Student Advising (CSA) strives to be a trusted and indispensable source of knowledge and support for students throughout their undergraduate years. In August, you will be assigned a CSA adviser who will work with you over the course of your four years here. He or she will not only help you plan your course schedule and fulfill your graduation requirements, but also assist in the exploration of your various academic and co-curricular interests and plans. Areas of Advising Your adviser is your primary point of contact for a variety of issues and questions, including the following: • General academic questions, concerns, • Planning for study abroad or difficulties • Premed and pre-law requirements, • Personal goals, issues, or concerns graduate school, and other academic • Registration questions and problems opportunities • Referrals to other resources on campus • Future life plans General & Major Advising During the second semester of your sophomore year, you will declare your major or concentration. You will be assigned a departmental adviser in your academic department in addition to your CSA adviser. Your departmental adviser can help you with questions specific to your major or concentration, such as course planning, internship and research opportunities, career options, and graduate study within the discipline. The Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) of each department is available to discuss the major. Remember that you can access faculty at any time, even before you declare a major or concentration. 2 Adviser Availability You can make appointments with your CSA adviser using our online appointment system. Your adviser is also available to answer quick questions during walk-in hours every Monday through Thursday from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm. In addition, you can reach your adviser via email and expect to get a response in a timely manner. The Advising Partnership Productive advising is built on a true partnership in which the student and the adviser work together. The spirit of an ideal advising partnership is mutual engagement, responsiveness, and dedication. Regular advising conversations, the fundamental building blocks of the partnership, enable an adviser to serve as a resource of knowledge and a source for referrals, so that students may plan and prepare, in the broadest sense, over the course of their years at Columbia. To make this partnership a success: Students should: Advisers should: • Actively engage in the advising relationship • Be knowledgeable, responsive, and • Respond to adviser outreach and be supportive forthcoming about perceived obstacles to • Reach out to advisees, especially when an success advisee seems to be struggling • Proactively research and plan ways to • Inquire about students' short- and long- reach academic goals and be open to term goals and ask students to consider sharing these goals with their advisers study abroad, fellowships, scholarships, • Be open to researching the answers to internships, research opportunities, etc. questions with advisers in order to learn • Research the answers to questions with ways to find information on their own students as a way to show students how to • Act upon referrals to other sources of find information on their own information and advice • Refer students to other sources of advice • Let advisers know when they have not and information and connect advisees with been able to find information and advice appropriate faculty members and they need departments and other campus offices • Follow up with students on important matters in a timely way This is what you can expect from us, and what we will expect from you. At the end of your first year at Columbia, we will ask you to take a survey in which you evaluate your adviser and yourself in terms of these specific expectations and standards. The CSA strives to ensure that you have a positive and productive relationship with your adviser. On occasion, students may feel that their initial advising assignments were not the appropriate fit for them. If you believe 3 that you would benefit from a different CSA adviser after you have worked together in your first year, you can meet with Monique Rinere, the Dean of Advising, to discuss an adviser switch. II. Transition from High School to College Be aware of some of the areas in which college will differ from high school: attendance policies, class schedules, number of graded assignments, class size, and communication and interaction with parents. High school can be relatively formulaic: if you do a, b, and c, you will be able to get into colleges x, y, and z. There is a straightforward goal and a clear set of steps to get there. College is different. People have different goals, and there is never only one way to reach a goal. For that reason, we in the Center for Student Advising encourage students to discover and follow their passions, to explore and grow through the process. Advisers can support and guide you, but you are in control of your education and experience, and ultimately responsible for your own choices, both academic and social. You will have the opportunity to manage your own time, create your own support network, and carve out space for rest and reflection. Remember, one of the most important things to keep in mind is that nobody is perfect. It is a sign of wisdom and maturity to ask for help when you need it. Always remember to: • Take care of yourself – experience your new freedom wisely. • Respect the rights of others. Behave responsibly. • Know when to ask for help, and then ask for it . • Maintain academic honesty and integrity at all times. III. Basic Requirements for a Columbia College Degree Students have 4 years (8 semesters) to graduate. Students need a minimum of 124 credits to graduate. Students must enroll in a minimum of 12 points per term. The average course load per semester is 15-16 credits, or 5 classes. We often recommend taking 4 classes in the first semester, however, as you adjust to college life. These 124 credits are made up of: • Columbia College Core Curriculum (1/3) • A major or concentration (1/3) • Electives (1/3) 4 IV. Columbia College Core Curriculum The Core has been the cornerstone of the Columbia undergraduate experience since 1919. The courses listed in this section make up Columbia’s Core Curriculum; they are discussed in much greater depth in the Academic Planning Guide for New Students and the Columbia College Bulletin. Note : Advanced Placement (AP) scores or pre-matriculation summer classes will not exempt students from any of the Core requirements, except possibly foreign language. Students with questions about AP credit or summer classes should consult the 2013-2014 Columbia College Bulletin, the CSA website, or their adviser. Literature Humanities (HUMA C1001- C1002) Lit Hum , as it is commonly known, is designed to enhance students’ understanding of the main lines of literary and philosophical development that have shaped Western thought for nearly three millennia. Much more than a survey of great books, Lit Hum encourages students to become critical readers of the literary past we have inherited. Lit Hum must be taken in the first year and may not be dropped. Students will be pre-registered for a section of Lit Hum (4 credits each semester). University Writing (ENGL C1010) University Writing is intended to facilitate students' entry into the intellectual life of the university by helping them to become more capable and independent academic readers and writers. With its small section size and emphasis on critical analysis, revision, collaboration, and research, the course leads students to develop specific skills and general habits of mind important to their future academic success. Students read and discuss texts from a number of fields, complete regular informal reading and writing exercises, write several longer essays, and undertake a collaborative critical project of their own design. University Writing, a one-semester course, is required of all first-year students and may not be dropped (3 credits). Half of the first-year class will be pre-registered for University Writing in the fall. Students who take University Writing in the fall will take Frontiers of Science in the spring, and vice versa. Science Requirement Three semesters of science are required: Frontiers of Science (SCNC 1000), plus two other courses from the approved list, which you can find in the CC Bulletin. Of the two other classes, at least one must be in one of the science departments (i.e., astronomy; biological sciences; chemistry; earth and environmental sciences; ecology, evolution, and environmental biology; physics, or psychology). The remaining class can be either another science course or a quantitative course (i.e., math, statistics, or computer science). Frontiers of Science is a one-semester course that integrates modern science into the Core Curriculum to change the way students think about questions of science and about the world around them. On Mondays throughout the semester, four of Columbia’s leading scientists present a mini-series of three lectures each. During the rest of the week, senior faculty and Columbia post-doctoral science fellows (research scientists selected for their teaching abilities) lead seminars to discuss the lecture and its associated readings, plan and conduct experiments, and debate the implications of the most recent scientific discoveries. 5 Half of the first-year class will be pre-registered for Frontiers in the fall. Students who take Frontiers of Science in the fall will take University Writing in the spring, and vice versa.